Hi all,
My name is Christophe PEREZ. I'm 30 years old.
I'm living in France, in the Castellet town (more exactly in "Le Plan du Castellet"), which is located in the Var department (83 number).
I'm working in computer science. I'm engineer and more exactly I'm software architect.
My dojo is located in the Beausset town. We depend of the "Federation Francaise d'Aikido et Budo" (FFAB) organization. One of the two recognized organizations in France (the other one is the FFFAA lead by Christian Tissier, a well-known senseļ). Our organization is lead by Noboyushi Tamura senseļ coming from Japan and who learned Aikido with O'senseļ.
My first teacher was Serge CRUZ. I thank him
hugely for transmitting me the Aikido passion.
It is sandan in the French system and shodan in the Aikikaļ ranking system.
I started the Aikido 4 years ago. And I have the first kyu rank (I will present my shodan in June )
Since my young age, I love martial arts, but unfortunally my father preferred that I practiced football and it was too expensive for my familly.
When I started to work and earn money, with my wife, we wanted to practice a martial art. But the question at this time was: "What is the better martial art for us and where found a dojo ?". We don't want to practice Judo or Karate, for us, today they are more a sport than a martial art but the discussion is open
.
In internet, I discovered that there is a dojo in the Beausset, near my house. The martial art, teached there, was the Aikido. What is it ? I didn't known this martial art and so we decided to look a course in this dojo. What surprise when we saw the teacher (Serge) executing techniques and speaking about Aikido. It was wonderful to see how the techniques are flowing, with no strenght use. I was surprised by the joy of the practioneer, and by the number of different ages and sexe. Men and Women practiced without any difference. I was already charmed by Aikido and when, after the course, Serge had explained us the Aikido philosophy, I say: "I find the martial art that I'm searching".
Since this day, I practice Aikido as often I can (unfortunaly, my job take me very time, but the Aikido is not only in the dojo, it is a way of life). We have the luck that N. Tamura senseļ is living in our department and so we can practice often with him.
Aikido is my way.
I am very pleased to be a member of the worldwide Aikido familly. Thanks to AikiWeb to offer us a location for sharing our Aikido love.
Bye everybody,
Chris